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Dope Test Before Drug Is Tested in Humans

Some athletes and trainers are tuned in to the drug-development pipeline, looking for the next big doping agent: experimental drugs
that can boost strength and endurance but are new enough to slip under the
screening radar. One scientist I spoke to for a previous piece on doping said that he still gets flooded with calls from athletes years after publishing details of a promising
advance in drug development for muscular dystrophy.

In an effort to combat the abuse of new compounds before it
starts, anti-doping agencies have begun working with drug companies to develop screening tests
before drugs are even on the market. In last year’s Tour de France, the
World Anti-Doping Agency caught several cyclists using a longer-lasting form of
the endurance booster EPO (erythropoietin), called CERA. Soon after the
athletes were caught, it was revealed that the agency had been working with
Swiss drugmaker Roche to develop a test to detect CERA while the drug was still
being tested by the U.S. pharmaceutical company Amgen.

Now German scientists announce that they have developed a test
for a class of compounds called benzothiazepines,
which are being developed for
the treatment of heart abnormalities and have been shown to boost endurance in
mice. According to a press release from Drug
Testing and Analysis, the journal
publishing the research,

These
compounds stabilize protein channels that would otherwise “leak”
calcium from muscle cells during strenuous exercise. Calcium is needed for
muscle contraction and this “leaking” effect weakens the contractions
and is a causal factor in muscle fatigue.

While the drugs have not yet been
tested in humans, researchers say that they carry a high potential for abuse because
they are easy to make.

“As soon as these drugs enter
human clinical trials, there is a huge potential for them to be misused in
sports. This preventive research lets us prepare before these compounds are
officially launched,” says Mario Thevis, Director of the Center for
Preventive Doping Research at the German Sport University of Cologne, Germany,
who led the research.

The study characterises the compounds according to their
weight and molecular structure. This gives the researchers a molecular
“fingerprint” by which to identify the compounds. Thevis and
colleagues show that, using high resolution mass spectrometry, JTV-519 and
S-107 can be detected in spiked urine at concentrations as low as 0.1 nanograms
per millilitre.

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